Collapse City, Starting by Making a Honkai Anime

"Heh, this one won't survive either."

Kalpas's words made Sakura rub her forehead in exasperation.

"Cecilia is so gentle. This fairy would love to get to know her," Elysia said.

Yaqing could see Elysia winking at him, but he could only pretend not to notice.

"Elysia, do you want to get to know her? I'm almost embarrassed to call you out," Mobius said, directly exposing her.

"Professor Mobius, what are you talking about? Elysia doesn't know what you mean."

Faced with Elysia's attempt to act cute, Mobius gave her plenty of face.

"Blegh!"

Ziegfried hugged Cecilia. "Honey, I'll always love you."

Ziegfried couldn't imagine what he would choose if he encountered such a difficult problem.

Cecilia felt Ziegfried's vulnerability and stroked his hair.

"Ew, you stinky old dad, still acting like a baby at your age?" Sirin shuddered.

Ziegfried hugged Sirin tightly, the rough stubble of his beard making her very uncomfortable. She pushed Ziegfried's face away and shouted, "Get away from me! Your stubble is too prickly, you stinky old dad!!! Bella, save me!"

"Release the Queen!" Bella delivered a super headbutt, rescuing Sirin.

Sirin patted Bella's head. "Good job, Bella!"

"Mom..." Kiana murmured, then moved closer to Mei and copied a line. "Mei, no matter what happens in the future, I'll share it with you. Love, Kiana!"

Mei blushed. "Kiana, don't say nonsense."

Watching Kiana and Raiden Mei's interaction, Bronya's lips curled up.

Theresa felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Curious, she took it out and saw that the Destiny group chat was filled with:

Cheng Lixue: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Salome: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Patrick: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Shub: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Shigure Kira: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Rita: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

Bianka: "I'll always love Mom!"

Susannah: "I'll always love Cecilia!"

It seemed like a strange one had snuck in. Theresa didn't have time to think and quickly sent a message.

Theresa: "I'll always love Cecilia!!!!!!"

Chapter 25: Killing Your Younger Self

[Ten minutes before the launch of Ahalato, Ziegfried and Welt entered the control ship. As Dr. Einstein counted down, the rocket launched.

During the 48 hours it took to reach the moon, Welt and Ziegfried talked a lot, from embarrassing childhood runaways to youthful hobbies, and finally to future dreams. They tacitly avoided discussing which plan Ziegfried had chosen from the two plans...

After Ahalato arrived on the lunar surface, Ziegfried, who was preparing to put on a spacesuit, looked dumbfounded as Welt walked directly out of the control ship. It turned out that Herrschers didn't need spacesuits at all.

Welt, who was stepping on lunar soil for the first time, quickly adapted to the gravity that was only one-sixth of Earth's. He looked at the pseudo-Herrscher of Thunder—Benares—flying in mid-air.

There was no air on the moon, so sound couldn't travel, but Benares's voice rang in Welt's mind.

Benares was sent by Sirin to guide Welt. Welt didn't know what the Second Herrscher was up to, but he still followed Benares to the center of the lunar ruins.

Seeing Welt and Benares leave through Ahalato's window, Ziegfried quickly put on his spacesuit, recalled the action plan that Einstein had told him before the rocket launch, and hurried to take action.]

"Herrschers are truly amazing~?" Elysia said.

"If Herrschers can survive in a vacuum, then what's the difference between their bodies and normal humans? What causes them not to need to breathe? If it's at the genetic level, wouldn't that be considered another form of evolution..." Mei's questions gushed like a spring.

"Huh?" Yaqing was dumbfounded.

Heaven knows, he just had a big dream and silently pieced the dream together into a script. You want me to explain the imaginary things in the script?

Kevin rubbed his forehead. "Okay, Mei, it's just a movie."

"Oh, that's right..."

"Just in terms of the Herrschers' authority, it's really cool!" Kevin said with some envy, then asked Su, who was in the row behind him, "Su, what do you think my Herrscher authority would be if I became a Herrscher?"

Before Su could answer, Ling raised her little hand. "I know, I know! Brother Kevin would definitely be the Herrscher of Instant Noodles!"

"Pfft."

A series of stifled laughs came from the movie theater. Sakura's pretty face was flushed red. "Kevin, children say what they think, don't... pfft."

Sakura's words were like a fuse that ignited a powder keg. For a moment, the movie theater was filled with laughter. Kevin looked around in confusion, even his girlfriend in his arms was laughing.

Who am I?

Where am I?

"I think Ling is right," Su added at the opportune moment.

"That's right, there's an old saying that children never lie," Yaqing said with a straight face.

"Where's that old saying from?" Elysia chimed in, playing the perfect straight man.

"Grandma said it."

Yaqing high-fived Su behind him in perfect sync.

"I'm going to fight you guys!" Faced with his friends' teasing, Kevin immediately went after Yaqing, who was sitting next to him.

[Welt arrived at the center of the lunar ruins and saw Sirin sitting on the throne once occupied by 'God.' Sirin crossed her legs and looked down at Welt arrogantly.

"Finally here, First Herrscher."

Sirin stood up, angry at Welt's lack of ambition. As an apostle of God, how could he choose to trade his life for the lives of ants? She unleashed the power she had obtained from 'God,' and three pairs of glowing blue-purple wings unfurled behind her.

"If you are willing to obey me, I might consider letting you off."

"Just kneel down and swear allegiance to me."

Hearing Sirin's words, Welt smiled disdainfully. He scorned Sirin's offer of leniency and looked down on the so-called power bestowed by God. He told Sirin that he had already made a plan to win.

"Let me teach you about human wisdom."]

"This Welt is so annoying!" Sirin scratched her head, her purple hair a mess, and said grumpily, "He keeps talking about humans, as if I'm not one."

"But Sirin, in the story, you're not human anymore. You're a Herrscher..." Bella said weakly, completely unaware that in the story, she wasn't even human.

Sirin angrily pinched Bella's chubby cheeks. "Bella, whose side are you on?"

"Mmph, I'm on Qween's side," Bella mumbled incoherently.

[Sirin snapped her fingers and floated in the air, three Void lances behind her. She looked at Welt, who was also floating in the air, and launched a few tentative attacks, which Welt easily dodged.

"Such slow attacks won't hit anyone." The Star of Eden in Welt's hand crackled, and black-red lightning-like energy surrounded him.

Provoked by Welt's simple taunt, Sirin's inflated ego regained control of her intelligence. Regardless of whether it was a trap, she directly ordered Benares to chase after him.

As three shooting stars, one red, one purple, and one blue, streaked across the sky, Ziegfried seized the opportunity to sneak into the center of the lunar ruins and collect the Honkai Steel. Although Welt said he would buy him 30 minutes, Ziegfried doubted whether Welt could hold off Sirin for that long.

Having been kited for a while, Benares sensed that something was wrong and told Sirin, but Sirin had already noticed and didn't care. The familiar white hand reappeared and grabbed Welt, bringing him before her.

Instead of panicking, Welt used his strongest move, Star of Eden: Zero-Point Calibration - Pseudo Black Hole. However, against Sirin, who possessed five cores, the pseudo black hole could not harm her as it had before.

As a fellow Herrscher, Sirin could sense that Welt's power was less than half of what it had been last time, so she wasn't surprised that Welt ran away.]

"It feels like Sirin is like a pufferfish, she inflates as soon as she has a little advantage," Kiana commented. "But it's not that different from her real-life image."

Kiana recalled that every time Sirin wanted to prank Uncle Yaqing, she would end up pranking herself, but that didn't stop her from trying again. Once she inflated, she would lose everything.

"She absorbed so much knowledge from the Previous Era, yet she still fell for such a clumsy diversion. I don't know if Sirin is too... or if it's just necessary for the plot?" Bronya said.

[Welt desperately tried to hold Sirin back to buy time for Ziegfried, and Ziegfried did not disappoint Welt's expectations. After the Honkai Steel was collected, he returned to Ahalato.

The audience then learned of the conversation between Welt and Ziegfried. The so-called Plan B was for Ziegfried to abandon Welt and leave the moon alone. The technology of the Previous Era and Honkai Steel were more important than Welt.

"The fate of this world depends on your decision, Ziegfried. Is the survival of humanity more important to you, or the life of one person?"

Welt said so. The unsolvable trolley problem was presented to Ziegfried. Should he pilot Ahalato to support Welt, in which case both of them might die on the moon, or should he escape alone to secure an opportunity for human civilization?

Ziegfried stood up. Before him was a younger version of himself, or perhaps it was his inner demon.

"The Honkai Steel has been collected, let's go, let's go support Welt."

Ziegfried said nothing.

"What are you still hesitating about? He has no chance alone, he can only bite the bullet."

Ziegfried said nothing.

"Hey, are you really going to listen to him and leave him to die?"

Ziegfried still said nothing, and even slapped away the hand that the younger version of himself extended.

The past Ziegfried angrily grabbed Ziegfried by the collar.

"Have you forgotten your surname?! You are a Kaslana! A true Kaslana would never stand by and watch others die! Have you forgotten the oath you swore?!"

"You said, what are you willing to sacrifice for humanity?!"

Ziegfried grasped the younger version of himself's hand. Those passionate eyes looked over, making him afraid to look directly, but those originally passionate eyes had now become incomparably weathered.

"If sacrificing my life can save all of humanity, I will not hesitate in the slightest, and neither will Welt."

"The choice that he and I made was precisely to save humanity, and what I sacrificed... was more precious than life."

Ziegfried let go of his hand. He brushed past the illusion of his younger self. At that moment, his back seemed to be a little hunched. "I sacrificed you."

The illusion disappeared, symbolizing that Ziegfried had completely killed his younger self.

The choice between one person and tens of millions of people.

The choice between one person and hundreds of billions of lives.

Ziegfried made his choice; this was his answer.

Ahalato activated. Sirin seemed to sense something rapidly moving away on the moon. Realizing she had been tricked, she angrily crushed the Star of Eden, causing Welt, who had lost gravity, to crash heavily onto the lunar surface.

The disheveled Welt watched Ahalato depart from the moon and smiled. He knew Ziegfried had made his choice.

"Well done, Ziegfried."

For a moment, the audience watching the movie was silent. They asked themselves if, in that situation, their choice would have been any better than Ziegfried's.

"Kevin, what would you have chosen?" Mei asked.

"I..." Kevin didn't know what to choose. Emotionally, he wanted to save Mei, but rationally, he knew the survival of civilization was more important. Kevin couldn't imagine how agonizing it would be if he actually had to make that choice.

"What about Yaqing?"

"Me?" Yaqing was also pondering. What would he choose if he were in that position? After a moment of thought, he said, "It depends on the person. If it's someone particularly important, I think I would choose the former."

"And what qualifies someone as important?" A sly glint flashed in Mei's eyes.

Everyone was curious, especially one person whose ears perked up.

"Of course, it would be..."

Yaqing's pause piqued everyone's curiosity.

"Cecilia."

"Tch!"